Bedbug woes are becoming a bane for thrift stores

Jessica Scott | The Grand Rapids PressStacy Carpenter, an In the Image coordinator, uses a steamer to clean a mattress in the Grand Rapids' store's back room

GRAND RAPIDS — When she realized those itchy red bites on her daughter’s skin were probably from something more hardy than spiders, the 22-year-old mom looked at her little girl's bed.

”It looked like somebody took a black marker and dotted all over the place,” said the Grand Rapids mother of two, who asked that her name not be used because of the stigma that comes with bedbugs.

She said her family lost everything because of the infestation, and had to replace it all.

Despite not being able to afford all new furniture, she was afraid to risk going to a thrift store.

She had TEK Pest Control Solutions’ director of operations Ray Cummings visit a few times a month to exterminate the bedbugs, and ended up buying more furniture.

As the tiny, relentless bugs continue to invade homes and businesses, area charity thrift stores and rehabilitation centers have been forced to either deal with bedbug infestations or start practices to keep them out.

Many stores, including Goodwill and Mel Trotter Ministries, simply don’t accept mattresses, where bedbugs tend to set up headquarters.

With reports of bedbugs increasing throughout the country, Goodwill employees have developed a more rigorous process as they sift through donated items, said Jill Wallace, Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids’ chief marketing officer.

Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids has 14 stores and serves eight counties in West Michigan. All of them have been bedbug-free, Wallace said.

”If just one piece is infected, it can close an entire store,” she said, adding that she doesn’t expect a bedbug problem.

One agency offering mattresses, In the Image, has started a new steaming process to ensure clients won’t perpetuate their bedbug problem, said Jay Starkey, executive director.

He noticed that more people were coming in with bedbug woes, and was wary because he had heard of other stores’ infestations. Starkey and Cummings teamed up to create the steaming area, which includes the use of a 150-degree steamer pointed at a mattress from 6 inches away.

”We want to bring people back here,” Starkey said.

In the Image, which receives its mattresses from Sleep Doctor, can steam between 20 and 30 mattresses per day and hands out 2,000 each year.

Starkey said he believes the process is yet to receive wide use. Another agency using such a practice is Mel Trotter’s women’s facility.

The facility, which can house up to 110 women in its substance abuse program and 100 women a night in the shelter, found bedbugs about a year ago. With the help of Griffin Pest Solutions, the shelter eliminated the problem and made a bedbug-zapper from a food warmer, said Don VanderZee, director of support services.

Women’s clothing and belongings go into the 5-foot-tall box and are heated for three hours at 120 to 130 degrees, VanderZee said.

He hadn’t heard of any bedbug prevention practices at the area ministry’s thrift stores, but other agencies around town have been calling Mel Trotter to inquire about the procedure.
VanderZee said he’s glad the facility now has bedbugs under control, but he knows they’re difficult to eradicate — no plan is foolproof. But now he has a better idea of how to deal with the problem.